What Happily Ever After?
by Uzumaki-sama
Summary: As Sora slept, Riku fought for repentance, and when he fell, he had two unlikely saviors. To Roxas, he is a feeling. To Axel, he is a mirror. This is the untold story of the ones who do not get to share the hero's happily ever after. Canon Axel,Roxas,Riku
1. Prologue: The Overshadowed Ones

For Hizachan. I love all three of the characters in your prompt, so I knew I had to make this good. Sorry this took so long to get started, but no good ideas came to me until very recently. I hope you enjoy my canon-verse-like take on this twisted trio!

Just a heads-up: the prologue and epilogue will be from a certain someone's first person point of view, but the rest of the story will be third person omniscient and/or limited. I'm not sure how many parts it'll be, but each part will be very short—_much_ shorter compared to my other stories.

* * *

-o-o-

_**What Happily Ever After?**_

_Prologue  
_The Overshadowed Ones

-o-o-

Alright.

I've never been that great with words, not even when I was somebody, so bear with me as I try to make this beginning make sense.

Someone's gotta tell it or no one'll ever know what happened. It's been bugging me. I need to do this even if no one's there to listen to me.

Hah, that sounds strange coming from me. But… I guess even people like me—y'know, _Nobodies_—can feel the itch to tell a story. Kinda weird how an empty shell can at least feel that much, yeah?

Anyway, I digress. Let's start this thing.

For every fairytale, there's a hero.

For every hero, there's an underappreciated best friend left overshadowed by that hero. That best friend will do anything for the hero, even risk his honor, suppress his heart (if he has one), and surrender his life.

The hero probably won't even notice. It's not in the hero's nature to turn to his best friend and say, "Hey, thanks pal! I totally would have died a gruesome death back there if you hadn't roasted that heartless," or whatever.

But the best friend expects to be overshadowed.

Why?

Because for every hero, there's also a princess—literally a princess or figuratively, they come in all shades of the rainbow—and with every princess comes a happily ever after.

Except, it's not so happy for everyone.

For every happily ever after, someone's left behind, someone's neglected, someone's _forgotten_. Those someones don't get to share the _happily_. Heck, a lot of times, those someones don't get to share the _ever afters_ either.

Those poor someones are usually the hero's best friend who, in the end, must sacrifice everything for the hero just so the hero can get _his_ happily.

Heh, and as much as we deny it, we all know what the ending of the story will be.

The hero will save the princess, or the princess will save the hero, and despite what the poor best friend sacrifices for them, it's the hero and the princess who will look each other in the eye at the end and smile. They'll be the happy ones.

This fairytale is no different.

So what about the poor best friend?

Who knows. Maybe he stays alongside them and pretends to be part of that happily ever after. Maybe he already died… or faded into nothing.

See, not all best friends get to be _someones_. Like me. I'm a no one. I'm one of the ones who got left behind, neglected, forgotten. Well, maybe not completely forgotten. The story I'm gonna recount to you will make sure of that.

For every fairytale, even this one, sometimes the best parts are about the overshadowed someones.

This story is about three of us.

Roxas, the hero's nobody who happens to be quite the hero himself.

Me, Roxas's nobody best friend.

And Riku, the hero's best friend. The guy who complicated things.

It all started one night when me and Roxas were out doing our normal rounds. You know, exterminating heartless and releasing those captured hearts, all for the sake of Kingdom Hearts and the Organization's Big Plan.

I had been assigned by the Superior to basically babysit the kid and keep him in the dark about certain going-ons that weren't necessary for him to know. At this point, Roxas was still clueless that the Organization was just using him for those keyblades of his.

He had no memories of when he was a somebody, aka Sora, aka the hero, but since Sora was still around and still had his heart, sometimes Roxas would do weird things—weird things that led me to believe that he was more than just an amnesic nobody.

What can I say? He grew on me. I may not have a heart, but Roxas was… Well, he was special. Not just a special nobody, but he was special to _me_. I couldn't help liking the kid. Before things fell apart, we got to be good pals. We hung out a lot, on missions and off, mostly in Twilight Town. Even Roxas found the Organization headquarters to be too empty—too much like a shell, just like ourselves.

Roxas liked watching the people in town. I once heard that a place is as lively as its people, and if our headquarters is any indication of how unlively nobodies are, then Twilight Town is just as good of an indication that the saying is true. The town is _rich _with life. Even _I_ like it there, and take it from me: when you're a nobody, there's not much to like.

Ah—damn. I digressed again, hehe.

Let me start over.

Okay, the story's about Roxas, me, and _him_.

Riku.

So how did _he_ come into the picture?

Well, like I was saying, it all started when me and Roxas were out on a mission.

Hollow Bastion was a lot quieter than Twilight Town, especially at night when the heartless were at their worst. And I say at their worst mostly because the Organization's control of the heartless factory there allowed them to send batch after batch of heartless out into the ravines surrounding the bailey. With more heartless on the prowl, the more Roxas could work, the more hearts were released each night, and the quicker Kingdom Hearts would be ready.

To get things done faster, I suggested we split up like we sometimes did. If we got done before midnight, we'd have enough time to report to Xemnas or Saïx before taking off to catch Twilight Town's sunset. Whether or not it was after a mission, we watched that sunset every day while eating sea-salt ice cream on the big clock tower overlooking the town.

And that particular night, I was really looking forward to getting done with the damn mission just so I could hang out with my buddy. Things were going smoothly with the heartless, so smoothly that it was kind of boring, but I had later to look forward to. Just me 'n Roxas, our ice cream, the town sprawled below us, and the sunset on the horizon. It was always the highlight of my day.

Little did I know then, things were about to get complicated.

Got your attention yet?

Good.

Grab a potion for that bleeding heart of yours and brace yourself.

There isn't a happily _or_ ever after waiting at the end of this tale.

-o-o-

* * *

_To be continued…_


	2. Part 1: The Guy Who Complicated Things

I changed my mind. The rest of the story won't be in third person (at least, not yet?). This story is so different for me, but I'm _really really _happy with it.

-o-o-

_**What Happily Ever After?**_

_Part One  
_The Guy Who Complicated Things

-o-o-

_-Roxas-_

I know I'm not like the other Nobodies.

It took me months of mission after mission, but I'm beginning to piece things together.

I'm the only one who can use a keyblade. I'm the only one who doesn't remember anything from my old life. And sometimes—only sometimes—I can feel things. I think I'm the only one who _can_.

Being a nobody is to be a misnomer, because nobodies _do_ have bodies. What we lack are hearts. A missing heart is supposed to mean zero feelings... So if I can sometimes feel things, what does that mean?

I tried to talk about it to the one nobody I thought would understand me... but Axel is talented at dodging questions that concern the details of nobodies, hearts, and the Organization. Especially the ones that deal with my past. I know he knows more than he lets on, but... well. He's Axel.

But as curious as I am, I know how to be patient. I do my job, and I do it the best I can. The Organization relies on my weapon to defeat heartless, so I defeat the heartless and I keep my questions for later.

_Heartless_ is also a misnomer, I have come to learn, because heartless are born from hearts. Some are just the darkness within hearts, but some—the ones I fight—actually contain hearts. They're simple to understand because they seem to have hive-like minds and only obey their instincts to "steal" hearts—the hearts of people, animals, and even the hearts of worlds; the greater the heart, the greater their drive to have it.

On the other hand, nobodies are sentient. Those of us in the Organization are nobodies who have retained our human form, and we have power over the lesser nobodies bred from people whose hearts weren't strong enough to preserve their identities.

See? Heartless and Nobodies are easy to understand.

_Humans_ are the mystery.

Their interactions and the emotions that result from those interactions fascinate me in ways I can't even begin to explain. Whether in Twilight Town or Hollow Bastion, or any of the other places my missions take me, humans fall prey to the heartless because of the silly little things beating in their chests.

Axel and the other members tend to avoid humans, and because they rarely leave me alone, I don't get to meet humans face-to-face very often... And my distant observations never really satisfy my curiosity for the laughing, smiling people I wish I knew more about.

Sometimes... I just feel like I belong out there with _them_, not here in the black and white and grays of a world that has no name because it doesn't really exist.

Maybe that curiosity is what drove me to do what I did that night in Hollow Bastion when I met my first human up close.

It was a late night, almost midnight. The moon was waning away from full but still illuminated the surrounding crystal terrain with a generous glow.

Axel had anticipated an easy night, so we agreed to split up and individually complete our missions. That meant the circumstances that evening were just right for what happened.

In other words, I was alone when I spotted the human. "The guy who complicated things," as Axel would later say.

Moments after I finished slaying my last heartless for the evening, _he_ came stumbling out of the crystal fissure in front of me.

At first I thought it was Axel. He was slender and tall and wore one of our Organization's black coats—plenty of reason to mistake anyone for Axel. But more than anything, the man simply _seemed_ familiar.

And he was hurt.

Something foreign swam inside of me as I watched the cloaked person stagger step after step. His boot soles dragged against the stone-littered path like he carried the weight of the worlds on his heels. One of his hands clutched his side through his coat, and the other pressed to the crystalline cliff face to keep himself steady as he trudged farther into the middle of nowhere, because that's where I had been fighting. He looked as though he had come here to die.

I didn't offer help. I hardly even breathed as I studied the person and tried to discern friend from foe. He still seemed like Axel, but as the Axel-like figure drew closer, the more I realized that this wasn't my friend at all.

The figure's risen hood hid his face from view, but beneath the shadows there I somehow knew that I wouldn't find red hair or Axel's memorable grin.

Even if Axel had been injured, he would have just used the darkness to teleport back to me, not stumble all that way; besides, he never would have let himself fall into this bad of a shape in such a short period of time. We had only been separated for about an hour, and infested with heartless or not, this territory wasn't that dangerous for nobodies of our caliber. And a nobody would have at least acknowledged me by now.

I approached the enigmatic man slowly, ready to summon my keyblade if he decided to react violently to my presence.

As the space between us diminished, I gradually began to notice other things about him, unusual things like his almost inaudible muttering, the ghostly pallor of his skin as the moonlight permeated the shadows of his hood, and the tremors of his body, his arms and legs quivering like sitar strings.

I crossed into his line of sight and stopped before him, and it didn't take long for him to realize he wasn't alone. That pale face lifted, his eyes still hidden by shadow. He took one look at me before he shakily lifted his hand from where he had been grasping his hurt side.

I waited. Watched.

A long wing-like shape swirled out of shadows and into existence, clutched weakly in the stranger's hand, and another unfamiliar feeling swept through me.

Was that a keyblade?

Whatever it was, it didn't last long. Before I could summon my own keyblade, the stranger swayed and collapsed against the crystal wall, breathing raggedly and trembling all over, and his mysterious weapon dissipated back into shadow.

And for the first time in months, I felt like there was a hole in my chest where my heart should be. There was this sense of loss, a sense that not everything was as it should be, or a sense that there could be something _more_ to my existence (or nonexistence) than what I was being led to believe. The last time I had experienced a feeling this profound had been my first memory as a nobody, when I had realized I _didn't _have a heart.

I kept my gaze steady on the wounded man and stepped even closer to him, wanting to know more about him, who he was, why he was hurt, wanting to know why he felt so familiar, and most importantly—how he could make me _feel _without even doing anything. My feelings came every now and then, but usually they were there and gone again before I could make much notice of them.

Not this time.

I looked at this man, and there, deep inside of me, was a sudden ache I couldn't ignore.

My boots scraped against the pebble-strewn path in front him, and his face slowly drew up to regard me. Long bangs hung over his eyes, but beyond the silver curtain, a glistening green narrowed at me.

Sea green.

_I'm not afraid of the darkness!_

I flinched as unknown images flitted through my mind's eye—of a storm and a dark sea and a hand reaching for mine—

And I instinctively stepped back in alarm, unsure of what had happened. All I knew was that it was his fault, whatever it was, and that was enough for me. My fingers twitched at my side to summon my keyblade.

But I hesitated at the sight of his widened eyes.

Why? Had he recognized me somehow? Or maybe not me, but the Organization's coat...

Not once did he blink or glance away as he tried to push himself upright, his gloved fingers still clutching his side. His expression clouded with pain before he slumped back against the wall, too weak to support himself.

His breaths came in ragged gasps now. The sea of his eyes grew murky from the storm of emotions crossing them, but I held his gaze, and he held mine.

A gloved hand weakly stretched towards me, fanned in the air.

"S-Sora...?"

_Come on, Sora! Together, we can do it!_

White doors closing on a sad smile.

_Take care of her._

As if stung, I drew back again and let him grasp only the sleeve of my coat. Those eyes—his _voice_... Those things I was feeling. They were memories, weren't they? Were they his or mine? Did I know him...? Who was Sora?

The stranger's fingers slipped away from my sleeve as he collapsed at my feet with a haggard cough. Aside from his continuous trembling, he fell still against the barren ground of the crystal wasteland, his arms wrapped around himself as if he were on the verge of falling apart.

I half expected this to be some sort of trap, but the other part of me recognized the danger his body was in. Whoever he was, he probably wouldn't make it through the night. Not out here.

I stood staring at him for several minutes, and when his breathing finally began to even out, I carefully knelt beside him. I didn't touch him. I just... watched.

His hood had slipped back a few inches to let loose a stream of silver hair. It was longer than I had expected, and I fought the urge to brush it aside to get a better look at him. He had landed partially on his stomach, and though his cheek was pressed to the ground, I could still see some of his face. Beneath his long bangs, his eyes were closed, but somehow I could sense he was still conscious.

I contemplated what I could say to him, whether or not I _should _say anything, and wondered what to do with him. In that moment, it didn't even occur to me that I could have just turned away and left him there to die. This stranger—this _human_—was special. I didn't want to let him out of my sight.

When I heard the droning swish of darkness behind me, I knew Axel had finally come to retrieve me. Tonight's mission was over.

I didn't glance up or speak as the sound of his boots approached. His attention would draw right to the human, anyway, not me.

"Whoa, look what the cat dragged in..."

He stopped beside me to observe the fallen stranger, and even though I still hadn't acknowledged my partner, he continued on as if I had.

"What did you do to him?"

My eyes were still trained to the human's face. "He did it to himself." It was all I had to say.

"Hmm..."

Axel planted a boot against the human's shoulder, gently pushing to roll him onto his back. A groan issued from the man's throat, but he lay motionless where he landed. His hood fell back further and revealed more of his face. Expression clouded with pain, one sea green eye squinted up at me and Axel, who sounded surprised.

"Wait a sec, this..."

I regarded the redhead, silently questioning.

He glanced at me, then back to the human with a crooked grin. "...must be fate," he finished with a dry laugh and shook his head.

"Who is he?" I asked at last. He made it sound like he knew who this was. "He... feels familiar."

Axel lifted a brow at me. "_Feels _familiar? We're nobodies, Roxas."

Right. I'd almost forgotten how much of a nobody my friend really was. "I think I know him," I clarified. My gaze returned to the shivering stranger, whose eyes were clenched shut once again.

"Well, you do..." Axel hesitated as he seriously studied him, his expression guarded now. "...sort of." With a flick of his wrist, he summoned one of his chakrams in a swirl of flame. "He's one of the ones who fought against the Organization at Castle Oblivion. He defeated numbers Five and Six," he explained. He pressed one of his weapon's points to the stranger's neck and used it to tilt his chin up. "Doesn't look so dangerous now..."

Castle Oblivion? That had been months ago... I hadn't been let in on too many of the details, but I had definitely heard about what had happened to a handful of the members. Eleven and Twelve had been executed, and Four, Five, and Six had been 'unfortunate casualties,' according to the Superior. Some of the deaths, especially Four's, had seemed fishy, but I had been too new at the time to question much. Actually, Axel was the only member who had survived the Castle Oblivion ordeal...

I studied the human even more closely. If he had been mixed up in the affair and had also survived, let alone was one of the ones responsible for the deaths of two senior members, he must have been very powerful. "So then he's an enemy," I said. Something about that bothered me. If he was an enemy, why would I have memories of him? Maybe they hadn't been _my _memories after all. But then why did I keep feeling things...?

Axel's lips pulled into a little smirk. "Yup, an enemy." He knelt beside me and retracted his chakram to pull off one of his gloves. When he pressed his bare hand to the stranger's forehead, both of them grimaced. "He's burning up. Or maybe my hand's cold..."

But the hands of a nobody were always cold. I didn't bring that up, though. "What's wrong with him?"

Axel met my gaze. "He's human." Then he smirked to show he was kidding. He began to pull his glove back on and rose to his feet. "He's sick. Probably has a high fever." Releasing another dry laugh, he shrugged. "I guess he's alone now. Last I heard, he was traveling with an ill-disguised mouse king."

I furrowed my brows at him. "He's... sick?"

The smile Axel sent me was amused, teasing—but it didn't reach his eyes. "What's wrong? Don't remember that either?"

More like almost forgotten. Heartless and nobodies didn't get sick. Weak or tired, yes, but not sick. Even though our bodies were essentially human, except for our missing hearts, we didn't fall to the same ailments that humans seemed to. Sickness, stress, love... But then, humans didn't have to worry about fading into nothing if they expended too much of their powers.

"I remember," I said, my eyes once again focused on the stranger. My enemy. My new curiosity. I couldn't leave him here to die, but I knew I would be risking a lot by keeping him alive. That was why I hesitated so long before I finally spoke up again. "...Axel?"

If anyone would help me, it was him.

"Yeah?"

"I want to take him back with us."

Axel's sudden silence prompted me to glance at him again. The stunned expression that met me wasn't a look I saw on Axel's face very often, and I realized then the extremity of what I had just suggested. An enemy. In our stronghold. Even if it were possible to hide this human there, what were the odds of keeping him hidden for long? And that was if Axel didn't just turn me right over to our Superior...

"Roxas!" he said at last, sounding incredulous, as if I had just stated I'd lost my keyblade or something. "You do know what the others would do to him, right?"

I said nothing.

Axel continued, this time with less surprise and more thought. "I mean, it's not like I _care _what happens to him, but you'd be handing him right over for torture and interrogation, maybe even a trip into becoming one of us." His voice lowered as he turned back to study the stranger. "Then again, it'd be kind of a fitting fate for someone like him..."

That was true. By taking him with us, I could have been sentencing him to a life of nonexistence and servitude, just like the rest of us. Or death. But he was going to die out here anyway.

Still silent, I slowly reached out. My fingers pressed to his pale cheek, and even through the material of my gloves, I could feel how smooth and warm his skin was. He stirred slightly at my touch, but his eyes remained closed, a strained breath escaping him as he parted his lips.

I didn't have to look to know that Axel was staring at me.

"...you're serious, aren't you?" he asked me. His somber tone had returned. "You want to take him back. Like... a pet."

I heard him shift, and when I pulled my hand away from the human and turned to Axel, I noted his posture. Axel had one hand on a hip, his other hand still gripping his chakram as if prepared to put the stranger out of his misery at any moment. My friend took one look at my expression—solemn, with a touch of expectation—and I saw the careful logic in his eyes cave into compliance. I could tell he hadn't completely accepted the idea, however, from his one furrowed brow of reluctance.

"Alright," he conceded, lifting both hands in surrender, "but if we get caught, I'm not standing up for you this time. He's your problem, not mine." He pointed at me in admonishment, and I understood the warning there. "I'll hand him straight over to the Superior if anyone finds out you're hiding him. And as soon as this guy is healthy enough to be dangerous again, you're letting him go." He pressed his finger to his temple, this time with a mustered smile. "Got it?"

The familiar gesture made me relax. I sat back on my knees and thought about everything Axel would be risking just to help me with this. He wasn't gaining anything from it, so I wasn't sure why he had actually agreed. Deep down, where that ache lingered in this human's presence, I was also grateful for my friend's support.

I formed a half smile back at him. "Yeah..." I didn't try it often, but it felt necessary in that moment.

Axel's own smile spread just a fraction. He dismissed his chakram, and it disappeared back into wisps of flame and darkness. Then he crouched beside the human. His arms slipped beneath the slender form and hoisted him up. There was no struggle. One of the human's arms dropped lifelessly to the side, but the flutter of his pale eyelashes told me he was still alive.

I half expected Axel to just drape the human over his shoulder like any other cargo, but he didn't. He carried him cradled between his arms and frowned down at him.

"Awfully light," he commented.

I stepped close to them, less hesitant now that Axel was going along with my curiosity. With a tilt of my head, I inspected the human's side where he still had one hand clutched. Now that I was up close, I could see a tear in his black coat. I pried his fingers away from the tear, ignoring the pained sound he gave, and took a good look at what he had been hiding.

A deep gash, as long as my palm, hardly even scabbed. It wasn't bleeding anymore, but it didn't seem too old. The pale edges of the skin around it told me all I needed to know. However he had gotten it, his wound was infected. That explained a few things.

As my hand fell away, the human's fingers covered the gash again, and I lifted my gaze.

His eyes were open again.

They met mine, and that ache inside of me deepened.

Without thinking, I brushed his bangs aside. "His eyes..."

Axel adjusted the human's weight in his arms and began to turn away. "What about them?"

_The color of the sea. Pretty, huh? _

A shiver walked down my spine as another image passed through my mind, this one of a sparkling sea, rich laughter coloring the wind, and a fond smile aimed at me over a shoulder. I recognized the sweep of silver hair. Though I couldn't see them in the memory, I knew that those eyes would have matched that smile. A smile that was aimed at me; me, and no one else.

"I've seen them before," I realized. My voice was hardly a whisper, and I had to swallow before I could breathe again. I was trembling, though I couldn't fathom why. I curled my hands into fists to still them, and I obediently moved to join Axel's side.

He was watching me again—not as if I had lost my mind, but as if I had just found a dangerous toy. He said nothing about my statement; instead, he took a step forward as the darkness sprang up in front of us to return us home. As if we could call that place home.

"Let's just get him out of here," Axel said at last. "We still gotta report to the Superior and go get our ice cream."

Oh.

Our ice cream. The clock tower...

If we didn't hurry, we might miss the sunset.

My gaze lifted, but I was only met with the back of Axel's head. Dangling near his waist was the human's gloved hand. I could no longer tell if he was still awake, but I suspected so.

"Axel?"

My friend glanced over his shoulder at me. "Yeah?"

"You said he was at Castle Oblivion." I hesitated at his side and waited in front of the dark portal, watching them with interest. "Do you know his name?"

Axel's eyes shifted, focused distantly as if on the past—a past he could _remember_, unlike mine. I couldn't help wondering what exactly had happened in that castle that he was so unwilling to revisit. Or maybe it wasn't the past that was keeping him preoccupied.

When he spoke again, he did so as a dismissal as he stepped into the darkness without me.

"...Riku."

Even after he had disappeared into the portal, I stood there for several seconds to taste that name on my tongue. I imagined a fragment of myself filling that aching hole where my heart should be.

"Riku..."

Curling a hand over my chest, I stepped into the waiting dark portal.

Riku. A human. My enemy.

The sea.

And no longer a nameless memory.

-o-o-

_To be continued…_

Please, if you've read this far, take a minute out of your time to leave a review? I'd love to hear your thoughts on characterization and accuracy and plot developments. Working in canon is a challenge. Fun! But a challenge.


	3. Part 2: Some Kind of Fascination

This part ended up waaaaay longer than I expected. Still, I'm having a ton of fun writing this fic. It's the first time I'm really getting a chance to write from Axel's point of view, let alone focus on Roxas so much. It's also really refreshing to write about all these characters in a non-romantic setting. I don't think I ever realized how subtly complicated their relationships all were until I started working on this thing. Anyway, enjoy!

-o-o-

_**What Happily Ever After?**_

_Part Two  
_Some Kind of Fascination

-o-o-

_-Axel-_

Ever realized how much something meant to ya only after someone tried to _take_ it?

That's how I was about Roxas.

One day, he was just Number Thirteen, my frequent partner, the Chosen One with the keyblade, the hero's Nobody. He was special, but at the same time, he really wasn't. Like, he was cool and all, but I wasn't _that _much more fond of him than I was with any of the others in the Organization. Sure, we hung out a lot and shared ice cream every sunset on that clock tower in Twilight Town and talked about (or rather, _I _talked about) the randomest stuff, but... he was just part of my mission. That's all.

Okay, that didn't sound convincing, did it? Some say that Nobodies are incapable of making friends because they have no hearts. But me? I liked to consider Roxas my friend because, out of the entire Organization, he really was the one closest to me.

But I hadn't realized _how _close I considered him until _he_ came along.

The guy who complicated things.

As soon as Riku collapsed in front of Roxas's boots and became part of the equation (the Axel 'n Roxas buddy equation), I started to realize how dependent on Roxas's attention I had become.

I didn't like the way Roxas looked at the guy. Even in town when he watched all those happy people, he was passive, just a silent observer.

But with Riku, it was like... there was something _there _that shouldn't have been there, some kind of fascination, almost a childlike curiosity. I'd never seen Roxas look at anything like that before.

It was at those times that Roxas wasn't _Roxas_, but somebody else. _His _Somebody. Sora.

Not that Sora would be able to retell the tale after Naminé got done with his memories, but I'd met Sora long enough to get a pretty decent idea of what he was like. Dedicated to his heart, dedicated to his friends, dedicated to his duty, dedicated to a _fault_. Everything was black and white to him. We Nobodies—Sora wasn't ever going to understand our shades of gray, so likely we'd end up as black on his radar in the long run, and hunted down one by one all for the sake of his "duty."

But not Riku. Sora would protect him.

Riku: now _he_was a different kind of gray, wielding the darkness yet fighting for the light—or at least trying to. Most of what I'd seen of Riku had been Vexen's little clone of him, and even though Hotshot Scientist No. 4 had been confident in his data and the accuracy of the clone, there was no telling how accurate it had actually been. And despite how harshly the clone had treated Sora, the silly boy had still tried to save it. That's how special Sora's friends were to him.

Anyway, I didn't know much about Sora's friends. I knew that the girl who Naminé had tried to replace in his memories had been a princess of sorts, but she was supposed to be safe and sound back on their world; and I knew Riku's heart had somehow been possessed by the Superior's heartless and was still sorta plagued by it, _and _he was apparently powerful enough to wipe out a few Organization members, making him quite the target of interest for the Superior. That's all I really knew. You know, just snippets of what I had seen with my own eyes and what I had heard from everyone else.

So when it came to Roxas—_Sora's_ Nobody—and the way he looked at Sora's best friend...

I didn't like it.

It was a nasty reminder of what we really were—shadows of who we used to be, shadows who weren't supposed to exist. And Roxas _wouldn't _existif he or Riku found out where Roxas had come from. After all, if I knew that _my_ Somebody still existed somewhere, I'd want to meet him, too.

I couldn't let the two of them get too buddy-buddy with each other, and I couldn't let anyone else find out we were stashing an enemy in our stronghold. I'd probably be executed on the spot if one of my superiors caught wind of what Roxas had brought home as a pet.

Either that, or I'd get rewarded for bringing him in. Xemnas might have a field day if he got the chance to do a little experimenting with the kid. After all—why had _his _heart survived all that darkness when so many other hearts collapsed and turned into heartless? It was a good question. If Vexen were still around, he'd probably leap at the opportunity to mess with him some more. Heh, except I'd stabbed him in the back. (Not that there were any witnesses to _that_ now.)

Regardless, I wasn't gonna take the risk by flaunting Riku's presence, so I was stuck in a very dangerous place either way.

So why had I done it? Why had I agreed to help short 'n spiky out?

Alright, I admit it. I was curious about this Riku guy. I hadn't heard of any otherhearts out there getting possessed by heartless, steeped in darkness, and somehow making it back mostly unscathed. I'd heard that Riku was a force to be reckoned with. After the shape I'd seen Zexion in after Riku had gotten through with him (and before, you know, I let the clone get 'im), I believed it.

I hadn't gotten the chance to meet Riku vis-à-vis at Castle Oblivion—which might have been a good thing. I didn't want to end up like Lexaeus, if ya know what I mean; he'd gone blade to blade with Riku and bit the dust. This was as good of an opportunity to meet Riku as I was ever gonna get, 'cuz at least this way I'd look like the good guy for helpin' him out, and he was too sick to shank me anyway.

So maybe if I played along with Roxas's curiosity, I'd get to see what made this guy so special.

The trick was not getting caught.

Well, getting past security was easy. We _had_ no security except the lesser nobodies, and they obeyed us without question even though me 'n Roxas had a human with us. We were able to teleport right into the castle to the wing where our chambers were.

Roxas insisted on hiding the stowaway in hisroom.

"There _are _empty rooms, you know," I pointed out. Aside from the constant trembling, the lump in my arms hadn't stirred even once since we had left the crystal wastelands of Hollow Bastion. I might have thought him dead already if not for the sheer heat radiating off his body. "It's not like the missing ranks of the Organization are gonna be using them. I bet we could even find some hair stuff for pretty boy here in Number 12's bunk."

It was a joke, but the blasé look that Roxas gave me said he wasn't in the mood for playing. Well, Nobodies generally were never in the mood for that; figures that the one Nobody who acted like he had a heart sometimes wasn't the type who had a sense of humor.

"Neeeever mind."

"You're the only one who comes near my room," Roxas said quietly. "And it's the last one in the hall. Besides, they expect the other rooms to be empty. Suddenly having one locked would look suspicious."

Okay, he had a point. And there's no way I coulda kept him in _my _room with the way Demyx liked to walk in unannounced.

I sighed. "Alright, you win. Open up before you-know-who comes looking for our mission report and we're caught lugging this guy around."

Roxas didn't need to be told twice. He pressed his hand to the center of his door, and beneath his glove there was a small burst of light. Roxas's powers. I always thought they looked cool—a lot cooler than some of the others, anyway. I waited as the door shimmered and became translucent, letting us pass through it into Roxas's quarters.

But when Roxas moved to his bunk and started stripping the blanket off, I hesitated.

"Where are _you _gonna sleep?" I wondered.

Roxas didn't look up. "The floor." He gestured to the bed. "Put him here."

Sleeping on the floor? _That bites._ "Why not crash with me?" I asked as I set the human down. As soon as I did, a wash of frigid air hit me, and I realized how ridiculously cold this castle was. I'd never really noticed it before. But I guess it's not that obvious until you've been carrying someone as hot as a furnace around.

This time Roxas glanced up at me as if I were crazy, and I remembered what I had just asked him.

"Oh, right." I smirked and tapped my forehead. "Organization members don't exactly have sleepovers. I get ya."

"That, and someone needs to look after him." Roxas carefully rolled Riku onto his back and, with a delicate brush of his fingers, swept silver bangs out of the human's face. Though Riku's eyes were closed, his expression was wrought with pain. He was still holding onto his wound, too. A frown pulled across Roxas's lips. "We have potions in the ward."

"I'll get 'em," I said. Not that I needed to do much work. Lifting a hand, I summoned two of my little nobody buddies. Assassins, suitably named—though today they'd be contradicting their nature. I sent them off to grab the potions our enemy needed, and they flitted away to obey, silently phasing into the white and grays of the wall.

Then we waited. Roxas watched Riku as I watched Roxas.

The silence that ensued wasn't the kind of quiet that I was used to dealing with around Roxas. Usually we had a companionable air between us, but in that moment, I felt out of place. This sudden, strange tension in Roxas—I just didn't know what to do with it. The way Roxas hovered at the bedside and just watched Riku tremble and breathe—it was like there was no room for me.

It was just Roxas and his new little pet.

Things were already getting complicated and the human hadn't even woken up yet. And man, I wasn't used to being ignored.

When the nobodies returned, they deposited a couple of bottles each into my hands. Two hi-potions, an ether, and an elixir. Impressive. Dismissing the Assassins, I approached the bed and pressed the elixir bottle to Roxas's cheek to get his attention.

Blue eyes lifted to meet mine, and I smiled. "Special delivery."

Roxas regarded the elixir before taking it, his frown curling into a partial smile. "Thanks..."

Alright, so maybe nursing an enemy back to health would be worth it if I got to see Roxas smile every time I helped out a little.

Roxas pulled the stopper and reached out to move Riku's hand away from the tear in his coat, but Riku only pressed more firmly against his side, not letting Roxas access his wound. Was the guy _awake_?

After setting the other potions down, I stepped forward to help Roxas, easily prying Riku's hand off. For being so sick and mostly unconscious, he still had quite the strength, but it was no competition. I held his arm down and used my other hand to rip his coat open a few more inches to get a better look at the damage.

Though it wasn't bleeding anymore, the cut seemed fresh. It was only a few inches long, but there was no telling how deep it was. It was a _really_ strange injury. Instead of inflammation along the severed skin, it was pale, so I thought maybe it had gotten infected, but... if that were the case, there would be redness, too. I lightly pressed against the edges of the wound, and his skin blanched even more.

There, like miniscule rivers of light, little white trails fed away from the cut and deeper into his body. There was something else at work here. No human or heartless had given him this wound.

"Saïx and Xigbar had a mission yesterday," I muttered aloud. Roxas wouldn't have known about that, though. Looking up, I explained, "This isn't a normal cut. Looks like Saïx got 'im with one of his claymore's points."

"_Saïx_?" Roxas asked, blue eyes widening. He knew what that meant.

For whatever reason, Xemnas had sent out two of his best Nobodies to get Riku. I got the feeling their mission hadn't been to _kill _him... More than likely, it had been to apprehend him and bring him in. If he had given them too much trouble, it made sense that Saïx would have just hurt him and left him there to suffer and weaken. Like a wolf stalking an injured deer. Except in this case, an unsuspecting little rabbit had decided to help that deer.

"Yeah. You probably haven't seen him fight much, but he's one of Xemnas's faves for a reason. See, Mr. Berserker's powers aren't all about rage and moonshine. He's clever. Calculating." I traced the edge of the human's wound again, and this time earned a soft, strained groan. The pressure made the white veins briefly visible before the faded cream of Riku's skin concealed them again. "This right here... is special. They wanted him alive—or at least in a lot of pain before he died."

"What do you mean?" Roxas asked. He leaned closer, whether with interest or some shadow of worry, I didn't know.

I glanced at him. "Do you know what a nobody's blood does to a human?"

"Nobodies usually just... disappear if they get hurt enough. I've never seen one bleed," he admitted. His brows knitted as he met my gaze. "We don't have hearts."

"Exactly," I said. "But we have bodies. We're mostly human, except for the whole 'no heart, no emotions' problem. I mean, we eat, we sleep, we talk, we think. We can bleed, too—it just takes a lot. We're made of both light and dark, you know. When our bodies—as nobodies, I mean—fade away, it looks like a buncha darkness." I pressed against Riku's skin again to show Roxas the veins of white more clearly. "But on the _inside_, that's where you find the light. That's why it's white. It's not real blood, but it drives us, so they call it blood."

Roxas studied Riku's wound with a look of wonder. "White blood..."

"Yup." I carefully took the open elixir bottle from him. "And since humans _have _hearts, a nobody's blood is like poison to them, even though it's just a form of light." Plus, with Riku's remarkably dark past, no doubt his body was outright rejecting that little bit of foreign light. But I didn't mention that; it'd just lead to more questions about Riku that would eventually point towards Sora. I didn't want Roxas to know about his Somebody if I could help it. All he knew about Sora was his name and that he was another keybearer, because that's all Xemnas had told him.

Roxas's gaze flickered to the bottle before returning to Riku. "So what's going to happen to him?"

"Heh, that depends on whether or not we get caught," I pointed out. I pressed the edge of the small bottle to the human's wound and gently tipped it, sliding it over the crevice to let the elixir wet it. I didn't use the whole thing because I was pretty sure this wasn't going to work anyway. "A few things can happen. His body can miraculously accept the nobody's blood, which I doubt. His body can reject the blood and expel it—or we'll have it take it out ourselves. Or the blood will eventually reach his heart and maybe kill him... or make him stronger. Who knows."

Another pained sound escaped Riku's throat, and when he made a weak move to cover the wound again, I firmly held his arm down and watched. Even with the strength of an elixir, nothing happened to the cut. As I suspected. It was like giving a poisoned person a potion; what they needed was an antidote. And in Riku's case, his wound wasn't gonna heal until something happened to that poison.

Although... Was it my imagination, or was his shaking subsiding?

Roxas's glove rested over Riku's chest. "Hey... It worked a little."

Okay, not my imagination. Roxas had noticed it, too, and he seemed... pleased.

"I guess that means he's gonna live a while," I commented. It came out dryer than I'd intended, and Roxas sent me a pointed look. It was guarded—not quite trusting, but not quite mistrusting, either. I couldn't blame him, though. I knew Roxas suspected that I hid a lot of stuff from him. I _had _to. Superior's orders and all. And right now, I was still torn between Roxas's wants and the Superior's orders. I was helping Roxas now, sure, but... if Roxas's pet made one wrong move, I knew I'd hand him over to Xemnas in an instant. Even though I was already hiding things from Xemnas anyway.

I found the stopper and plugged the elixir again before setting it with the other potions. Best to save the rest of it for later. Roxas and I had other things to do before we could continue playing doctor.

As I pulled away from Riku, though, something caught my attention. I hadn't noticed it at first, but—

Another problem: Riku smelled like darkness, and not just any kind of darkness, either. He smelled like the Superior. It was faint enough that it wouldn't draw unwanted attention, but anyone passing by Roxas's quarters might be able to detect it. I'd have to put Riku in one of my coats to help disguise it. For now, Roxas's blanket would have to do.

"We need to turn in our mission report," I reminded him as I spread his blanket out over Riku's immobile form.

Roxas straightened himself. "Yeah..." But he hesitated at the bedside with a lingering glance at the human, that indiscernible expression back on his face. I knew that he wouldn't want to leave his patient alone for long. I kind of didn't want to, either, not with the high risk involved. Besides, we were on a tight schedule.

I spread a hand and summoned a portal of darkness leading directly to the locker room. "Then let's hurry—we're gonna miss the sunset." I didn't have to elaborate on _which _sunset. We never missed our sea-salt ice cream, and I really didn't want to break that tradition because of this silly human.

Once again, Roxas met my gaze, but this time with a level of understanding. My partner was back; the shadow of Sora was gone for now.

The two of us stepped through the portal and into the locker room to change into new coats. Roxas didn't ask questions, so I assumed he understood about Riku's distinct smell. I just hoped that our efforts would be enough to avoid suspicion. When we were done changing, I conjured up another portal, and together we entered into a chamber I was all too familiar with.

Like many of the other rooms in our stronghold, it was an almost blinding white. Spaced out at varying heights around the circular wall were thirteen marble seats for each member of the Organization, though there were only eight of us left thanks to Sora, Riku, and yours truly. This was our conference hall, of sorts, but lately it was rare when all eight of us actually _organized_. At the end of a mission, usually only a handful of us gathered at a time, like now.

Roxas and I appeared in the center of the floor, facing the ascending chairs of our superiors. Only three of them were present: Numbers One, Two, and Seven—Xemnas, Xigbar, and Saïx, respectively. Number Three was absent, which put me on guard.

If Saïx and Xigbar had failed to retrieve Riku during their mission yesterday, maybe Xemnas had sent Xaldin alone today. If so, Xaldin might have already caught wind of who Roxas and I had run into and brought back with us. Or maybe... our mission at the bastion had only been a cover-up and they knew we would run into Riku?

This posed problems. I wasn't sure what to think now, and I hated that feeling. I was used to being several steps ahead of everyone. For now, I'd see if Xemnas himself brought up the subject; that wasn't exactly playing it safe, since if he _knew _we had Riku, I should be the one to turn Riku in, and if I didn't even mention the human, Xemnas would know I was trying to cover something up. But on the off chance that Xemnas didn't know about Riku's whereabouts, I didn't want to blow the secret. So—I wouldn't.

Xemnas peered down at us with his usual nonchalance, but I wasn't fooled by the lack of interest in his expression. Behind the cold amber of his eyes were the never ending calculations and observations of the most formidable person I had ever come across. Once upon a time, maybe he had been different with a heart and a sense of morality blurring his scientist mind, but without that heart, he was merciless.

His silver hair slipped over his shoulders as he leaned forward to address us. "Report."

As usual, Roxas let me do most of the talking, which was fine with me. I explained the outcome of the mission, like _all_ of our missions dealing with heartless extermination, and when I was done, Roxas gave his estimate as to how many heartless he himself had wiped out. All throughout our report, none of our superiors glanced away, nor did the others say anything, not even when we finished. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but it seemed like we were being judged. At times, even though I was masking myself as well as I always did, it still felt like I had our secret branded on my face for them to see.

But not one word was breathed about Riku. No one proclaimed us traitors. The other members didn't suddenly teleport in and assassinate us for hiding an enemy in Roxas's room. Anything had been possible, but nothing happened.

After our report was finished, Xemnas dismissed us with a bored wave of his hand. I decided then that there was nothing more awkward than being guilty of something, coming so close to being caught red-handed, yet somehow getting away squeaky clean. Instead of just accepting the dismissal and leaving, I found myself blinking at my superiors as if they had just told me they were changing the dress code to pink.

_Really?_ That was it? No dramatic hand pointing and accusations of treachery?

Xigbar must have mistaken my surprise for something else. He slouched back in his chair and smirked at us. "Relaaax, there won't be another mission for a few more days. Chill while you got the chance, yeah?"

"Uhh, sure," I said in reply as I sent a nondescript glance at Roxas, who was doing a better job looking more casual than I was. Well then. I wasn't gonna count our lucky stars; I was just gonna get the heck out of there. Saïx was already giving me a studious look, and I didn't want to give him more reason to suspect me of something. Slinging my arm around Roxas's shoulders, I gave a playful two-fingered salute to our superiors. "See ya!"

I teleported us away, and when the darkness cleared, the warm setting sun of Twilight Town greeted us.

Freedom. At least for now.

We were later than usual, but the girl at the ice cream cart greeted me just as cheerfully as always as I bought our evening snack. Roxas lingered behind, more solemn than usual as he observed the laughing humans nearby. Teenagers, about Roxas's age. We saw them often, though Roxas never approached them, and they never approached him.

I remembered the day I had first met my little buddy. After Xemnas had given Roxas his new name, I had sorta taken the kid under my wing. When I had been showing Roxas around the town, he had paused to watch those same human kids laughing as they all ate sea-salt ice cream. The look on his face then had reminded me of a kicked puppy, so I'd decided to buy some ice cream for him to get him to relax and open up to me more.

That was the first time we'd shared ice cream together on the clock tower. Now it was our own little tradition, and that tradition was more important to me than... well, not a lot of things were important to me, so I guess that spoke for itself.

The two of us took our ice cream to the clock tower, as always, and sat to watch the sun finish setting beyond the horizon. From there, we could see the entire town and all its people and the flocks of birds as they flew past us.

On most days, we'd sit a while and chitchat about random things as we nibbled at our ice creams. You know, to unwind after a daily mission or something. But not today. Roxas practically inhaled his treat, already finished with it by the time I got to the halfway point.

He was also a lot quieter than usual. I tried to bring up anything that wouldn't somehow lead back to Roxas's new pet human, but he didn't seem to be up for small talk. He stared down at his licked-clean stick as he listened to me. If he _was _listening. Sometimes I'd love to know what went on in that spiky head of his.

"Earth to Roxas," I said, waving a glove in front of his face. "You in there, buddy?"

Blinking, he glanced up at me for the first time since we had gotten our ice cream. He saw my forced smile and looked away again before changing the subject. "We shouldn't leave him alone for too long."

Great. Even if Roxas had a point, I still didn't like how easily Riku was already messing things up just by being there.

I stifled a sigh and lowered my gaze to my unfinished ice cream. The sun had finished setting, the sky now cast in a deep red, and the color glistened softly against the turquoise of the melting treat dangling from my fingers.

"...yeah," I agreed at last.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Roxas look at me again, probably in reaction to my hesitant tone. "Hey," he said, trying to sound upbeat. Without raising my face, I glanced back at him, and a small smile was tugging at his lips. Was he trying to reassure me? "Maybe he'd like some ice cream, too."

Right. I shoulda guessed.

Man, who was I kidding? Roxas wouldn't worry about me when he had a big chunk of his past lying unconscious on his bed. What was worse—now the human wasn't just intruding on the tradition, he was becoming a part of it.

But I wasn't the jealous type. Didn't have a heart, remember?

I formed a partial smile to his credit. "Sure." I lifted my dripping ice cream and popped the rest into my mouth.

After returning to the vendor and buying one more for Riku, I handed the bag to Roxas, and we headed to an alley to teleport back to the castle.

I'm not sure what I had been expecting when we got back to Roxas's room, but when the door shimmered and disappeared to permit us, I don't think either of us had imagined coming back to an empty bed.

I heard a rustle and slap as Roxas dropped the bag with the ice cream in it.

Both of us stared into the room for a long moment as if our eyes were just deceiving us. But no—the evidence was there. The empty bed, twisted sheets dangling onto the floor, the potion vials used...

The pet was missing.

I was the first to break our stunned silence. "Whaaat? Where'd he _go_? He couldn't even keep his _eyes _open, how'd he manage to teleport away?" At least, that was what I was gonna assume. He would've had to have teleported away; otherwise, there was no way he could have made it through the locked door without Roxas's powers.

_Unless..._

Roxas wordlessly hurried into the room, and I suddenly realized that _that_ could be a very dangerous idea. I lunged after him, grabbed an arm, and jerked him back—

And just in time, too.

A streak of purple and black swiped through the air where Roxas had been just a split second before. An ambush. It missed, though barely, and Riku staggered out from his hiding spot next to the door, weakly clutching his wicked wing-shaped weapon in defense.

From an injured person or not, that attack still could have caused some serious damage—damage I wouldn't have been able to explain to our superiors. Maybe it was time we stopped underestimating this bastard and showed him who exactly was calling the shots around here.

When Roxas moved forward and stretched a hand out, I threw my arm in front of him to stop him from bringing out the keyblade and making the situation even more complicated. Riku didn't need to know who Roxas was.

"I got this," I said, and I didn't wait for a response.

I shoved Roxas back out into the hall and took charge, summoning one of my chakrams as Riku lifted his weapon towards me, pale-faced and looking as though he might fall to pieces at any moment. I didn't even know where he had drawn the strength to stand this long, let alone stay conscious.

But right then, I didn't care. I wasn't going to let him threaten Roxas again.

Before Riku could even flinch, I had closed the distance between us, slammed him against the wall, and stabbed my chakram through his hair and the hood of his coat, pinning him there between me and the wall. My other hand went for his throat, but I didn't clench. By the way Riku's green eyes widened behind his heavy bangs, I knew he knew that his life was in my hands.

He said nothing in that moment, but his eyes never strayed from mine, and I felt a pleased smirk curl at my lips as I studied him up close. His expression was an open book like this.

He wasn't scared of me. No, he was just surprised and probably disappointed in himself, and from the way his eyes gradually began to narrow at mine, I could tell he was beginning to accept his defeat, but only temporarily. This human wasn't going to settle down easily. I'd give him a day at most before he attempted another stupid stunt to escape. I'd better remedy that.

"Hi there," I greeted him, now grinning, though I made sure my expression had a malicious edge to it. I didn't want to give him the impression that I'd let him get away with doing _that _again. "I don't believe we've met in person yet, but I know aaaaall about you."

His eyes narrowed even more.

"The name's Axel," I said, not surprised when Riku didn't seem to recognize my name. I skipped my usual formalities and cut right to the chase. "And you're _Riku_, aren't you?"

Now he was outright glaring. Good. At least I knew he was lucid enough to understand me through his pain. He looked like he was in a lot of it, too. If not for the chakram point keeping him pinned to the wall, he probably would have collapsed again already. I'd let him hang there and suffer a bit longer while I got my point across.

"You know, I was in Castle Oblivion, too, and we _all _know about how you took out Lexaeus and Zexion," I continued, keeping my voice partly playful. Riku didn't argue against my accusation, even though it was only half true. "Numbers five and six. That's _two _senior members of the Organization. You must be preeeeetty powerful."

I lowered my hand from his neck to lightly prod at his wound with two fingers. He outright grimaced, his eyes squeezing shut as he grit his teeth and sucked in a sharp breath, his weapon dropping from his shaking fingers and dissolving back into shadow. He'd broken out into a cold sweat again.

"Hehe, at least when you're at full strength," I teased. "You look pretty pathetic right now."

A soft growl issued from his throat, and he cracked an eye open to send me another scathing look.

I offered him a smirk. "Tell me, Ri-ku," I continued, leaning close to get in his face, "you got any idea what my superiors would do to you if they knew I had you pinned here like a helpless little bird?"

His eye closed again as he tilted his head back against the wall and swallowed.

"No? Well, they'd kill ya at best," I said with a chuckle. "Or they'd take your heart—you know, turn you into a nobody, and depending on which kinda nobody, they'd probably use you against your pal the keyblade master."

That did it. He snapped to attention, fear in his eyes as he regarded me, his breathing even more ragged than before. Sora was that important to him, huh?

I wasn't much of the vindictive type, but right then, I couldn't resist. I took a step back and pulled an arm around Roxas, drawing him forward. Roxas was stiff, almost guarded, but he didn't resist as I presented him to Riku.

"By the _way_, have you met Roxas? Say hi, Roxas."

Their gazes locked. Roxas tensed even more, and Riku's expression clouded with mixed emotions. Neither of them said anything, so I went on.

"Roxas, this is Riku, our _enemy_. Riku, this is Roxas, the guy you should _thank_." I tugged Roxas back, and Riku sent me another dark look, this time with silent inquiry. "Lucky you, Roxas wants to keep you alive," I explained. "And, well, since Rox 'n I are _pals_, I'm inclined to spoil him a bit."

When Riku glanced at Roxas this time, Roxas was the one who averted his gaze, and confusion passed through the human's eyes. I had no doubt he was trying and failing to put the pieces together. Roxas looked just like Sora, and if Sora was _that _important to Riku, there was probably one big scramble of questions inside that pretty little head of his.

"We're not gonna kill ya," I assured, "so you should be grateful." I released Roxas, but he stayed where he was and hesitantly sneaked glances at Riku as I moved closer again, curling my fingers around the spokes of my chakram. "For the next few days, you belong to _us_." I yanked my weapon out of the wall, letting Riku slump to the floor. "And after that, maybe we'll let you go. Maybe we won't. Depends on how well you behave."

Riku's face had lowered, his bangs shielding his expression again, and his hand had gone back to clutching his wound. I couldn't tell if he was even still listening to me anymore.

Twirling my weapon, I let it disappear into flames and darkness, and I kneeled beside him with my arms folded over my knees. "So no fancy tricks, no escaping. Got it?"

No response except for his forced breathing.

Well. This might be easier than I thought after all.

"He's bleeding."

I turned to Roxas, whose eyes were fixed on Riku again. I took a better look at the human to make sure Roxas was right, and sure enough—there, hardly noticeable against the black of Riku's pants and coat, a thin stream of blood was trickling down his side and pooling beside his curled legs.

"Huh. He is."

Roxas started to turn away. "I'll get some more potions."

"Wait." I rose back to my feet and shook my head. "This is good news. We'll let 'im bleed a bit. If he bleeds the stuff out, we won't need to do it ourselves." I guess overdosing on potions and getting a little rough-handled had been enough to trigger his body's own curative process. This guy was resilient. "But afterward, we'll need to patch him up before he gets a _real _infection. I think I know where we can find a secluded bath for him."

Where Naminé liked to hang out. It'd been a while since I'd seen her, but hopefully if all went well, we wouldn't run into her—or the freakshow she was working for right now.

After I'd conveniently "lost her" at Castle Oblivion (which is what I'd told Xemnas), she had started working on restoring Sora's original memories. For a while, Riku and the mouse king had stuck around, but they'd gone off to do their own thing, leaving Naminé with some guy named Diz.

I only knew all this because she'd told me. But Riku (nor Roxas) didn't know I knew Miss Memory Witch, and I'd rather keep it that way. She was another dangerous pet that Roxas didn't need to get close to.

"Alright," Roxas agreed. When I looked, he was staring at the human again. And under that curtain of silver hair, Riku's green eyes were staring back. There was that look I didn't like, except this time Riku was returning it. Roxas frowned. "His eyes..."

_"I've seen them before." _

I hadn't forgotten what Roxas had said back at Hollow Bastion. His memories may have been missing, but some part inside of him was still Sora, and that part of him recognized Riku. Or at least his eyes.

Well, there was one way to solve that.

I held a hand out, calling out to the darkness as I would if creating a portal. It swirled around my fingers, and I focused it, watching as the shadows solidified into a strip of silky black cloth. Then I stepped forward and kneeled, ignoring the way Riku tried to draw away from me.

With an easy swoop of my hands, I slipped the blindfold over his eyes and secured it with a knot at the back of his head. He didn't resist the impediment after that. All he did was trace the material with his gloved fingers and turn his face in my direction as if he could still see me through the black veil. As long as Roxas wasn't distracted by those eyes, I didn't care.

I rose and turned towards the door. "Rox, c'mere."

He hesitated, glancing at Riku.

"He's not gonna die if we leave him for a minute," I said with a crooked smile.

With a small nod, Roxas followed me into the hallway, and the door shimmered back into existence to lock the human inside. We moved past the bag of ice cream Roxas had dropped, where the turquoise treat had begun to seep onto the white marble floor.

I paused far enough away so that Riku wouldn't be able to overhear us even if he'd had the strength to crawl to the door and press his ear against it. Roxas's solemn expression was back, tinged with uncertainty.

My smile twisted into a tease. "Relax, I just wanted to mention something." Then I grew serious again. Motioning back towards his chambers, I met his gaze. "Don't ever show him your keyblade."

Roxas's brows drew together in confusion. "Why?"

"Just don't." I waved a hand, trying to come up with a good reason other than, _I don't want him to know who the heck you really are. _"He might—try to take it or something." Okay, even _I _would have found that suspicious. Real genius there, Axel.

"I thought I was the only one who could use it besides the other keyblade wielder?" Roxas asked.

I shrugged. "You never know."

Roxas's gaze drew back towards his door. "But..."

He never got to finish his thought, though, because we suddenly weren't alone anymore. There was no sound—just that familiar tug of power that told me there was another nobody very close by.

That, and Saïx had a distinct scent, too.

I turned around, already lifting a hand in greeting. "Yo, Saïx! Got a mission for me already?"

My blue-haired superior regarded me with cool indifference. "You're needed," was his answer. That was just like him, too. He did what he came for without directly answering any of my questions. Xemnas was teaching him well. "Just you," he added, focused solely on me. Then his yellow eyes shifted towards Roxas, who had put up his own mask of disinterest.

"Right. I'll be right there," I said without delay. I still didn't want to give Saïx anymore reason to suspect me for anything.

He had always rubbed me a little wrong. It wasn't because he had joined the Organization right before me, and it wasn't because Xemnas really did play favorites with him. I think it was because Saïx just had that sixth sense about him, like he could _see _right through me into what I really was. I was still waiting for him to go berserk on me and run me through with his claymore for hiding so many secrets—Naminé and Sora's whereabouts, the true reasons behind the deaths of the other members, and now Roxas and Riku's... _thing_... which was no more than ten meters away from Saïx. Right under his nose.

And Saïx didn't seem to have a clue.

He calmly glanced away from Roxas and, frowning, gestured to the melting bag of ice cream not too far from us. "Clean up this mess." Then he slowly turned away and left, disappearing into a dark portal.

I released a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding.

That had been close. It was a good thing we hadn't been yammering that loudly about Riku, otherwise he might have overheard something. But who knew how lucky we were gonna stay.

After glancing back at Roxas's closed door, I met his gaze. His questioning frown wasn't comforting. I'd just been summoned—_alone_—to talk to Xemnas, so likely it was about something Roxas wasn't supposed to know. The somethings that Roxas wanted to know and often asked me about. I was sure he had one of his usual questions sitting there on his tongue right then but knew I wouldn't answer him. I very rarely did.

It was always easier to change the subject.

"Don't allow yourself to get attached to you-know-who," I said as I nodded towards his door. For once, mentioning Riku was in my favor. "He can't stay."

Roxas just watched me, his silence speaking for him.

But as I turned away to conjure up my own dark portal, I heard his voice—soft and hardly audible beneath the drone of the darkness springing up around me.

"I know..."

-o-o-

_To be continued…_

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